Jazz Piano Essentials: The Music of Thelonious MonkVarious ArtistsConcord 4908

Dansk StereoDanish Radio Big BandCope 115

Jubilant PowerTed CursonInner City 1017

Stan Getz Plays for LoversStan GetzConcord 6024

Concord Records SACD Sampler, Vol. 1Various ArtistsConcord 1032

Cool Jazz: The Essential AlbumVarious ArtistsManteca 214

Jazz: Love Songs After DarkVarious ArtistsPlayboy Jazz 30250

Chesky Jazz LiveVarious ArtistsChesky 82

Playboy Jazz After DarkVarious ArtistsPlayboy Jazz 7507

June 1, 2020Interview with Jennifer WhartonMy friend, bass trombonist extraordinaire Jennifer Wharton, decided to spend a portion of her lockdown time interviewing me, and editing that interview. You can see it on YouTube. We cover topics such as playing a dog's birthday party, bucket mutes, and pizza. Check it out on the link below.

March 30, 2020Study Scores Now 20% OffI am aware that many students of jazz composing and arranging are looking for resources during this stressful time. So I have reduced the price of all study scores on my site by 20%. This includes scores of all original compositions from Up From the Skies (Vanguard Jazz Orchestra), Group Therapy (Tentet), Paul Klee (Swiss Jazz Orchestra), East Coast Blow-Out (WDR Big Band w/John Scofield), and Barefoot Dances and Other Visions (Frankfurt Radio Big Band). This discount will be in effect from now until at least September 1. Click on the "Store" link. I wish safety and health to all through this crisis.

June 30, 2019Now Available: Study Scores from "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions"!I am pleased to announce that study scores for all the pieces from the CD "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions" are now available for sale from the "Store" section of my site. The seven original compositions were written to showcase the soloists and ensemble of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band, where I have been chief conductor since 2010. The CD was nominated for a 2019 Grammy for "Best Recording by a Large Jazz Ensemble". I invite you to check them out.

May 21, 2019Brian Blade Fellowship with the Frankfurt Radio Big BandOn May 16 I had the privilege to conduct the Frankfurt Radio Big Band in an extraordinary concert featuring the entire Brian Blade Fellowship as guest soloists. I arranged 10 pieces composed by Brian and pianist Jon Cowherd. You can now check out the video on YouTube. Brian Blade, drums; Myron Walden, alto sax/bass clarinet; Melvin Butler, tenor sax; Jon Cowherd, piano; and Doug Weiss, bass. At 49:51 there is an interview with Brian and myself. Click on "Read More" to go to the video link.

October 24, 2018Video from 49th German Jazz Festival: Frankfurt Radio Big Band w/Nils WogramOn Oct. 22 I conducted the Frankfurt Radio Big Band in a concert featuring the music from the classic 1976 album "Trilogue". Albert Mangelsdorff, Jaco Pastorius and Alphonse Mouzon met for a spontaneous live session of trio music. I orchestrated it for the band, featuring the phenomenal Nils Wogram on trombone.

October 3, 2018New Email AddressesMy email addresses have changed. If you want to contact me regarding lessons or performances, I am now at mcneelymusic@gmail.com. If you are inquiring about my compositions and arrangements, please email me at wuweimusic1@gmail.com.

February 1, 2018Barefoot Dances with the Frankfurt Radio Big BandI'm excited to tell you about the release of my latest CD with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions" (Planet Arts) is a 7-part suite I wrote for the band in 2014. By that time I'd worked with the band steadily for 6 years (now 10!). The band sounds great! Great cascades of sound, Oliver Leicht's electric clarinet, and many more surprises. See below for a link for more info. It's available through Amazon, CD Baby and iTunes.

March 29, 2017Now Available: East Coast Blow OutIn 1989 I wrote a suite for John Scofield, Marc Johnson, Adam Nussbaum, myself, and the WDR Big Band. We recorded it in the old Annostrasse studio in Cologne. It came out on CD a couple of years later, under the name "East Coast Blow Out". I'd thought of calling it the "New York Blow Out" but Marc had recently moved from NYC to Virginia. Gotta be accurate, you know.

Scores and parts for all five of the pieces are now available for purchase in my store. They can be bought individually, or as a complete set. For further information go to the link below:

January 3, 2012Ethan Iverson InterviewI've known Ethan Iverson since he was about 15; he's one of the most talented musicians I've ever known. In 2011 I did a project with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band featuring The Bad Plus. After our final concert we repaired to his hotel room. Ethan fired up his digital recorder, and he proceeded to interview me. We talked for a few hours. The results are now up in his blog, Do the Math. You can see it at

Jim McNeely was born in Chicago, and moved to New York City in 1975. In 1978 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. He spent six years as a featured soloist with that band and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (now The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra). 1981 saw the beginning of Jim's 4-year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet. From 1990 until 1995 he held the piano chair in the Phil Woods Quintet. At the present time, he leads his own tentet, his own trio, and he appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide.
Jim's reputation as composer/arranger and conductor for large jazz bands continues to flourish, and has earned him ten Grammy nominations. In 1996 he re-joined The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist and Composer-in Residence. He is also chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio (HR) Big Band. Other recent work includes projects with the Danish Radio Big Band (where he was chief conductor for five years), the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands), the Swiss Jazz Orchestra, and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra. The New York Times has called his writing "exhilarating"; DownBeat has said that his music is "eloquent enough to be profound".

Jim has appeared as sideman on numerous recordings led by major artists such as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, David Liebman, Art Farmer, Robert Watson, and Phil Woods. He has numerous albums under his own name. The latest is "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions", with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band on the Planet Arts label ((“A powerful suite…superb big band music…demonstrates a feel for arranging orchestral colors that is magical”—Jerome Wilson, All About Jazz)

Teaching is also an important element of Jim's work. He is currently on the faculties of both Manhattan School of Music and William Paterson University. He was Musical Director of the BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop from 1991-2015. He has appeared at numerous college jazz festivals as performer and clinician, and has been involved regularly with several summer workshops. He has also done clinics and major residencies at dozens of institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, Australia. New Zealand, and Egypt.

UP FROM THE SKIES

McNeely's arrangement of the Jimi Hendrix title track that opens the disc clearly demonstrates his ability to preserve the band's distinctive personality while exploring fresh sounds.Russ MustoAll About Jazzread more

As usual, McNeely’s work is harmonically and texturally rich, the kind of music that offers something new on efavor of inventive, sophisticated composition for jazz orchestra.David FranklinJazzTimesread more

CARNEGIE HALL JAZZ BAND

In the music's massed detail, one heard all points along the scale from corny to beautiful; the latter was represented by Jim McNeely's startling arrangement of ''I'm Getting Sentimental Over You.'' It began with one long, cloudlike note held by muted trombones and ﬂutes, from which the melody trickled forth; the thick, soft brass arrangements of the piece, and its brief sequential passages for lone instruments, made a well-recognized tune exotic.Ben RatliffNew York Timesread more

Mr. McNeely's ''Future Past'' was about two ways big-band composers responded after be-bop: with the contained, chamber-music-tinged, misty pieces of Gil Evans and the muscle-flexing but harmonically far-reaching arrangements of Oliver Nelson and Thad Jones.Jon ParelesNew York Timesread more

But none of this truly gave a warning of what would happen when the soprano saxophonist Dave Liebman came out to perform "Let's Dance," and then "Sing, Sing, Sing." Mr. McNeely has completely rewritten these pieces, using Gil Evans as a guide. Big, airy brass chords floated above the rhythm section. The melodies were submerged under the gauzy textures of the arrangement. And occasionally Mr. McNeely quoted a voice that might have been from the original arrangement, hard, dense harmony that contrasted with the modernism he provided.Peter WatrousNew York Timesread more

McNeely's recasting of "Sing, Sing, Sing" contrasted sustained trombone melodies with angular intrusions and hints from other strains of the piece, and his arrangement utilized the call/resbrass - in a cataclysmic, post-modern fashion.George KanzlerThe Star-Ledger (Newark, NJ)read more

The concert opened with Mr. McNeely's "Berlin Porter Overture," an extended piece that stacked song on song, with Mr. McNeely casting them differently each time. "Blue Skies," for example, became dissonant. Mr. McNeely had tempos and rhythms change for each composition, occasionally opening the tunes up to improvisations.Peter WatrousNew York Timesread more

But the concert's standout was Jim McNeely's arrangement of ''Matrix.'' The tune is a witty line for a 12-bar blues that Mr. Corea recorded in 1968. Thirty years later, he and Mr. McNeely kept turning it inside out: placing it in a one-chord meditation, having the band play parts of Mr. Corea's original solo as he improvised comebacks, finding new implications in the harmony.JON PARELESNew York Timesread more

Jim McNeely's arrangement of Louis Prima's ''Sing, Sing, Sing'' was close to brilliant, an imaginative mixture of strict, complicated section writing and devices that destabilized the orchestra in favor of small-band heat.Ben RatliffNew York Timesread more

LICKETY SPLIT

Equally engrossing, the music on Lickity Split teems with myriad attitudes. As it unfolds, it details the synchronicity between McNeely's arranging talent and his prowess as a composer.Jim MacnieDownbeatread more

As boldly as its title suggests, "Lickety Split: The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra Plays the Music of Jim McNeely" (New World) takes our notions of how a jazz big band can and should sound and shakes the living lickety out of them. In fact, the last time the orchestral language of jazz received such a welcome jolt may have been when the famed Miles Davis-Gil Evans album "Miles Ahead" was released--and that was way back in 1957.Larry KartChicago Tribuneread more

This is certainly one of the most sophisticated and highly drilled big bands in the country, and Mr. McNeely stokes the ﬁre with cerebral music, full of musicians' jokes and touches that come from Lewis's palette, like an afﬁnity for muted brass and soprano saxophones.Ben RatliffNew York Timesread more

Jim McNeely, who having served as pianist during the band's transitional 1978-84 period returned to the fold in 1996, just in time to undertake this challenging project. The band's legendary, steady Monday night gig at the Village Vanguard is now in its 31st year, thereby outlasting the entire lifetimes of Bix Beiderbecke, Charlie Christian, Jimmy Blanton and Fats Navarro and almost those of Bunny Berigan and Charlie Parker.Jack SohmerJazzTimesread more

Jim McNeely, their pianist and composer-in-residence. A Chicago native best known for his association with Stan Getz, he has quietly become one of the sharpest composers on the scene. Touched by the far-reaching classicism of Gil Evans, a restless exploratory quality informs his pieces.Lloyd SachsChicago Sun-Timesread more

GROUP THERAPY

OmniTone set McNeely up in the studio with an agile little big band and a chance to show off all his tuneful goods at once. McNeely, in turn, set the band loose on a host of his own wild originals and his creative rearrangements.Aaron SteinbergJazzTimesread more

OTHER BIG BAND RECORDINGS

Pianist/composer Jim McNeely is a glorious exception. This ﬁve-part suite recorded in Cologne by the WDR Big Band - plus bassist Marc Johnson, drummer Adam Nussbaum and chief soloist, guitarist John Scoﬁeld - bristles with invention.Mark StrykerDayton Daily Newsread more

Jim McNeely is a true composer. He doesn’t string together riffs or rehash tired licks, but produces works for jazz ensemble that are highly original and technically sophisticated.David FranklinJazzTimesread more

Other Press

McNeely was an omnipresent force at this year's conference, both teaching and performing.International Musicianread more

Especially ﬁne are his exploration of Antonio Carlos Jobim's "Zingaro," his chromatic stroll around the edges of "Body and Soul" and his pithy treatment of Monk's "Bye Ya" and Bud Powell's "Un Poco Loco."Jeff BradleyThe Denver Postread more

McNeely plays the hell out of “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning” for almost nine minutes, quietly, without repeating himself, in heartfelt single-note lines of genuine grace. Not bad for an arranger.Thomas ConradJazzTimesread more

Upcoming Performances

July 11, 2020 - Webinar: Large Ens...Webinar: Large Ensemble Arranging

Other Videos

49th German Jazzfestival Frankfurt: "Trilogue + 15" - Albert Man

The opening concert of the 49th German Jazz Festival celebrated Albert Mangelsdorff, who would have turned 90 on Sept. 5. I arranged the classic album "Trilogue" (1976, Mangelsdorff, Jaco Pastorius, Alphonse Mouzon) for the Frankfurt Radio Big Band featuring the phenomenal Nils Wogram on trombone.

Publishing Company

Jim McNeely was born in Chicago, and moved to New York City in 1975. As a pianist he has enjoyed long-term affiliations with the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra (later Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra), the Stan Getz Quartet, and the Phil Woods Quintet. Currently he leads his own tentet and trio, and he appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide. Jim’s reputation as composer, arranger and conductor continues to grow. In January of 1996 he re-joined The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist and Composer-in Residence. From 1998-2003 Jim was Chief Conductor of the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, and is currently Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Big Band. He continues to work as guest conductor with the Metropole Orchestra and most of the other major jazz orchestras in the U.S. and Europe.

Jim has recorded numerous albums as leader. The latest is “Barefoot Dances and Other Visions” (Planet Arts), which received a 2019 Grammy nomination (his tenth) for “Best Album by a Large Jazz Ensemble”.

He is currently member of the faculties of both Manhattan School of Music and William Paterson University.

Jim McNeely was born in Chicago, and moved to New York City in 1975. In 1978 he joined the Thad Jones/Mel Lewis Jazz Orchestra. He spent six years as a featured soloist with that band and its successor, Mel Lewis and the Jazz Orchestra (now The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra). 1981 saw the beginning of Jim's 4-year tenure as pianist/composer with the Stan Getz Quartet. From 1990 until 1995 he held the piano chair in the Phil Woods Quintet. At the present time, he leads his own tentet, his own trio, and he appears as soloist at concerts and festivals worldwide.
Jim's reputation as composer/arranger and conductor for large jazz bands continues to flourish, and has earned him ten Grammy nominations. In 1996 he re-joined The Vanguard Jazz Orchestra as pianist and Composer-in Residence. He is also chief conductor of the Frankfurt Radio (HR) Big Band. Other recent work includes projects with the Danish Radio Big Band (where he was chief conductor for five years), the Carnegie Hall Jazz Band, the Metropole Orchestra (Netherlands), the Swiss Jazz Orchestra, and the Stockholm Jazz Orchestra. The New York Times has called his writing "exhilarating"; DownBeat has said that his music is "eloquent enough to be profound".

Jim has appeared as sideman on numerous recordings led by major artists such as Thad Jones, Mel Lewis, Stan Getz, Bob Brookmeyer, David Liebman, Art Farmer, Robert Watson, and Phil Woods. He has numerous albums under his own name. The latest is "Barefoot Dances and Other Visions", with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band on the Planet Arts label ((“A powerful suite…superb big band music…demonstrates a feel for arranging orchestral colors that is magical”—Jerome Wilson, All About Jazz)

Teaching is also an important element of Jim's work. He is currently on the faculties of both Manhattan School of Music and William Paterson University. He was Musical Director of the BMI Jazz Composers' Workshop from 1991-2015. He has appeared at numerous college jazz festivals as performer and clinician, and has been involved regularly with several summer workshops. He has also done clinics and major residencies at dozens of institutions in the U.S., Canada, Europe, China, Australia. New Zealand, and Egypt.

Jim McNeely was an important early teacher and influence. I had met and heard him at Jamey Aebersold camps as a teenager and still remember a trio set with Kelly Sill and Joel Spencer at Pops for Champagne in Chicago (the tunes included “How My Heart Sings” and “Zingaro”) and a duo set with John Goldsby at the camp in Elmhurst (the tunes included “Hi-Fly” and “Bye-ya”). Jim was the reason I attended NYU, where he showed me how many notes I got wrong when transcribing Herbie Nichols pieces.

The following interview was taped in May 2011 after performances of Jim’s arrangements of TBP music with the hr-Bigband.

Included in the middle is a note from Jim in memory of the late Bob Brookmeyer. At the end, the previous McNeely music listening sessions with Darcy James Argue are reposted.Ethan IversonDo The Mathread more

Jim McNeely is one of the truly great contemporary American jazz composers. Following on from a comment he made to a post I’d written about integrating solos into extended form compositions, he allowed me to interview him about the act of composition in contemporary jazz. What follows is a transcript of that conversation, and it covers a huge area and many aspects of the art and craft of writing for improvising musicians.Ronan GuilfoyleMostly musicread more

McNeely: Well, obviously, there's a lot that is similar, and certain "arrangers" —like Gil Evans or Bob Brookmeyer —had the ability to blur the lines between the two; they'll do an arrangement which really sounds like their own composition. But to me, an arrangement is a process that's done to a song. I think of the song as the main character of the whole play, and your job as an arranger is to present that character and, by the end of the arrangement, we have some insight into the tune, into the character.Frank TafuriOmniToneread more

If you own some of the best records of the Stan Getz quartet or you dig the great jazz orchestras, then there is a good chance that you have heard—or better still—felt Jim McNeely's touch before. Either way, if you want to learn more about some of the jazz giants that McNeely has backed on piano, including Getz, Chet Baker, Ted Curson, Thad Jones, Mel Lewis and Joe Henderson, as well as the jazz composing and arranging process, then you have certainly hit the right button to get to the right page.Joao Moreira dos SantosAll About Jazzread more

As compared to 40 or 50 years ago, there are now may fine books available that can help the aspiring composer/arranger in his or her quest for knowledge. Here are the ones that have impressed me the most. This is by no means an exhaustive list, nor the final word on this subject. I'll revise it from time to time. And let me emphasize that no one has paid me (or ever will) to be included on this list.

Texts

Russell Garcia
The Professional Arranger-Composer, Vol. 1 Joe Goldfeder
The book I learned from many years ago. The book might be considered "old fashioned", but you never forget your first...

Sammy Nestico
The Complete Arranger Fenwood Music
Solid information from a solid arranger

Don Sebesky
The Contemporary Arranger Alfred Music
Solid information from another, more modern solid arranger

Gary Lindsay
Jazz Arranging Techniques Staff Art Publishing
All the basic information, plus Gary's into many of the more recent composer/arrangers

Bill Dobbins
Jazz Arranging and Composition: A Linear Approach Advance Music
Not a big band book, but a great treatise on the linear aspect of jazz composition and arranging

Scores, etc.

Jazz writer Frank Hadley asked a number of composer/arrangers to list their five favorite big band recordings, for an article he was writing for DownBeat. Here was my reply:

Duke EllingtonThe Blanton-Webster Band
Great soloists, and Strayhorn is deep in the process. Restricted by the recording time limits of the day, these are formal gems!!
Favorite Track: Impossible to pick a "favorite". With a gun to my head I'd go for either "Jack the Bear" or "Koko", but....

Bob Brookmeyer w/Mel Lewis and the Jazz OrchestraMake Me Smile
I'm playing on this one, and the music on this album changed my approach to composing for a big band. The song is only part of a bigger, more important story.
Favorite Track: the whole first side (remember LP's?) ("Make Me Smile", "Nevermore", "Nasty Dance")

Count Basie OrchestraBreakfast Dance and Barbeque
(was combined with Basie at Birdland in the Mosaic boxed set The Live Roulette Recordings)
Favorite Track: "Who, Me?" (Frank Foster)
The whole album is great, including Thad's Counter Block (a precursor to Little Pixie) and Joe Williams doing Five O'Clock in the Morning. But Frank's blues arrangement is a masterpiece. The 3 choruses of tutti (after the piano chorus) should be taught at every music school in the world. Combine that with Sonny Payne, Marshall Royal, Snooky Young, Thad Jones; what a band!

Gil EvansThe Individualism of Gil Evans
Favorite Track: "The Barbara Song" (Kurt Weill)
Some people consider me a pretty good composer/arranger. When I start to believe them, I put on "The Barbara Song". To this day I am reduced to tears. Check out the original (from "The Threepenny Opera"), then Gil's version, with Wayne Shorter and Elvin Jones. Truly a humbling experience...

Thad Jones/Mel LewisLive at the Village Vanguard
Favorite Track: "a-That's Freedom" (Thad's arrangement of his brother Hank's tune)
The whole album is incredible. But to this midwestern boy, "a-That's Freedom" made NYC seem like a wonderful place where I should go. Thad's 3 choruses of tutti are among the greatest of his many hair-raising shout choruses.

Frank wanted only five suggestions, but I had to append a list of "significant others":